Thomsen with Denmark’s national football team, selling at Cannes

Currently filming the third season of Banshee in the US and preparing his own directorial debut, In Embryo, after having performed in 80 films, Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen will be ready in the autumn for Danish director Kasper Barfoed’s The Summer of ‘92. The UK’s HanWay Films will start pre-sales at Cannes.

Produced by Danish Oscar-nominated producer Meta Louise Foldager (A Royal Affair2012), of Meta Film, and Kris Thykier, of PeaPie Films, from a script by Anders Frithiof August, The Summer of ’92 will follow the story of Danish soccer coach Richard Møller Nielsen, the man behind the only Danish national soccer team that has won the European Championship in football.

“Ricardo was a truly skilled trainer with a unique personality. He was pretty bad at communicating – with players, the media and management – so he was often misunderstood and met with strong opposition. He fought against all the odds, sometimes almost against himself,” Thomsen explained.

“The Summer of ’92 is a dream project for me. As a boy, I went to football with my dad, and we were also in Gothenburg to see Ricardo’s boys win the final against Germany. It was a crazy match during a crazy summer, which united the Danes in a common dream,” added Barfoed.

Thomsen – whose international career includes playing the villain in the James Bondmovie The World Is not Enough (1999), and starring in UK director Ridley Scott’sKingdom of Heaven (2005) and, most recently, US director David Koepp’s Mortdecai, withJohnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow – has just finished Danish director Susanne Bier’sA Second Chance.

In between roles, Thomsen is financing his feature debut as a director, In Embryo, which he wrote himself about a drug dealer who falls in love with a young girl. To win her heart, he procures heroine and cocaine for her, whilst also getting addicted to the drugs himself, and reality then starts to merge with fantasy. Thomsen, UK actor Ross McCall and Canadian actress Kristen Hager will play the leads.